‘The Bunny Game’ Becomes Latest Victim Of BBFC Censorship

It was announced back in June that Trinity acquired UK rights to Adam Rehmeier’s highly controversial film The Bunny Game and will be releasing it through their new home entertainment label Trinity X in early 2012.

Unfortunately, it looks as if Rehmeier has a lot more in common with Tom Six than he knew. Much like The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), The Bunny Game‘s DVD release has been rejected by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). I don’t understand why they feel the need to publicly humiliate these films, like they’re going to shame them into submission.

Bunny Games follows a female prostitute (Rodleen Getsic) who hitches a lift with a truck driver. The truck driver (Jeff Renfro) kidnaps the woman, restrains and forcibly strips her, and proceeds to physically and sexually abuse and humiliate her. The abuse of the kidnapped woman takes up the greater part of the film. I like to call it “hyper horror”.

Condemning yet another film, David Cooke, Director of the BBFC stated: “It is the Board’s carefully considered view that to issue a certificate to this work, even if confined to adults, would be inconsistent with the Board’s Guidelines, would risk potential harm within the terms of the Video Recordings Act, and would accordingly be unacceptable to the public.”

Rehmeier responds exclusively to Bloody Disgusting stating: “I think ‘The Bunny Game’ is way less disturbing than ‘Pretty Woman’. Somehow it’s more socially acceptable to glamorize prostitution under the guise of a rags-to-riches fairy tale where Richard Gere falls in love with the whore by the end of the film.” He continues, “Rodleen and I didn’t make ‘The Bunny Game’ to glamorize prostitution. It is far from an erotic film. It is a modern cautionary tale grounded in reality.”

CENSORSHIP.The Board’s Guidelines state “A strict policy on sexual violence and rape is applied. Content which might eroticise or endorse sexual violence may require cuts at any classification level. This is more likely with video works than film because of the potential for replaying scenes out of context. Any association of sex with non-consensual restraint, pain or humiliation may be cut“. The principal focus of The Bunny Game is the unremitting sexual and physical abuse of a helpless woman, as well as the sadistic and sexual pleasure the man derives from this. The emphasis on the woman’s nudity tends to eroticise what is shown, while aspects of the work such as the lack of explanation of the events depicted, and the stylistic treatment, may encourage some viewers to enjoy and share in the man’s callousness and the pleasure he takes in the woman’s pain and humiliation.

The Board considered whether its concerns could be dealt with through cuts. However, the pervasiveness of the abuse makes it very difficult to deal with The Bunny Game by means of cuts. If the company would like to attempt to cut this work in order to submit it in a reduced form, they are entitled to do so, but the Board can offer no assurances that such re-editing would be successful.